The AA+ rating continues to reflect the City’s role as an international business and cultural center, the historical resiliency of its broad and diverse economic base, its elevated, yet manageable debt profile, including favorable pension funding metrics, and the efficacy of institutionalized procedures in addressing near-term financial challenges.
The Negative Outlook, revised from Stable by KBRA on March 20, 2026, reflects the City’s FY 2027 Preliminary Budget (the “Preliminary Budget”, or “the financial plan”), which improves fiscal transparency by incorporating substantial, previously underbudgeted recurring expenditures but also reveals a materially larger structural imbalance than previously reflected. In recent years, the City’s financial plan benefited from the ability to prepay future-year expenses and otherwise manage recurring costs within the budget framework. The revised baseline suggests that this flexibility has diminished as expenditure growth…
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